Tufts seniors graduating today will be leaving with a degree and a diploma, but many will soon be lacking something important: health insurance.
State law mandates that all college students be insured. While the majority of Tufts students are covered under their parents' plans, Tufts offers its own student health insurance for those who are not. Graduation is the time when coverage options begin to slide away from students.
Depending on the plan, coverage can end at the time of graduation or extend through the end of the summer, as is the case with the Tufts University Plan.
Individual insurance plans are comparatively expensive and unaffordable on many student budgets, especially when students are already hampered by college loans.
Some students have few qualms about going without health insurance.
"I'd be willing to say that most seniors are willing to go without [insurance]," senior Stephanie Davis said.
Davis will be working with the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program to teach English in Japan and will not be provided with benefits.
However she did acknowledge the expense incurred from medical exams required by certain jobs, such as a mandatory chest x-ray she underwent before going to Japan.
"I think [lack of] accessibility is hard to adjust to," Davis said in regard to the loss of the Tufts Health Service. "I know people who go to Health Services every time they get a cold."
Lindsey Shanholt graduated from Tufts last year and had no plan for her insurance needs when she graduated. When she left school, she was still covered by her parents' plan for a short time and was able to begin a job in January that provided her with insurance.
Shanholt said she would probably have gone without insurance if necessary but she "probably would have only let it got for a few months. Then I would have felt I had to get health insurance, because you never know what could happen."
She also noted that she has less-lucky friends who have gotten jobs at Starbucks for the insurance while they waited for a career opportunity.
While most students are concerned by the idea of lacking health insurance altogether, those who do not have a job that provides it see going without coverage as a necessary evil.
Yet this attitude unsettles many in the health care business, including Tufts University's Director of Health Services Michelle Bowdler.
Bowdler said she understands why being uninsured is "a gamble [students] are willing to take" and said that she was inclined to see it that way when she was younger.
But given the potential financial liability, Bowdler does not recommend life without health insurance "even for a day."
"If you do need it and you don't have it, it could follow you for the rest of your life," Bowdler said.
For example, a student could avoid education loans for four years in college only to rack up an equivalent financial burden after a four-day hospital stay.
According to Bowdler, an injury as simple as a broken leg can cost $10,000 - $15,000 after emergency room costs and X-rays, while a few nights in an intensive care unit in a serious emergency can cost over $100,000. Bowdler recommends that all seniors should know the expiration date of the health insurance policy that currently provides their coverage.
Earlier this semester, Bowdler gave a presentation on student health insurance for seniors to a class taught by Assistant Professor of Political Science Gary McKissick. She found that most students were very interested in the issue but were poorly informed.
Bowdler has several recommendations for graduating students to avoid forgoing insurance.
"You could take a part-time job that has benefits while you're looking for the job of your dreams," Bowdler said.
She also suggested taking a single graduate course. Many universities, including Tufts, will provide student health policies to part-time students at rates that are often significantly cheaper than an individual plan from an insurance provider.
A good individual insurance policy often costs almost as much as the price of a single course plus student insurance.
Bowdler urges students to "seriously consider" one of these options after graduation.
The Tufts student plan costs $1,365 per year for undergraduates and $1,479 per year for graduate students.
She said that students, beyond making sure they have insurance, need to make sure that their plan is appropriate for their needs.
"It is mind-boggling how many different insurance plans there are out there," she said, "[and] not all insurances companies offer plans to individuals."
This concern is particularly important for students with existing medical conditions, Bowdler said.
Most insurance policies have a "preexisting condition clause" that creates a gap period, usually the first six months of coverage, during which expenses incurred for treatment of preexisting problems are not covered.
